Many recreational games are played upon a tabletop. Many tables are specifically designed to serve as a playing surface for a particular game, which game is played upon the table's top. Typical of these tables and games are pool tables for playing pool, ping-pong tables for playing ping pong, craps tables for playing craps, and air hockey tables for playing air hockey. Many of these table surfaces are large, bulky and heavy.
In such games as are played on these tables, it is generally optimal that the playing surface be located at a height that is comfortable for the players. Each table is designed so that the tabletop's height is set to best suit players of average height, but this tabletop height may be awkward for players of above or below average height.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,021 discloses a game table of the prior art that is provided with a pair of articulate leg structures and means for adjusting the height of the tabletop. The disclosed means includes a ratcheting mechanism that the player can use to adjust the table's height. The mechanism is cumbersome and burdensome, and requires an inordinate amount of time and effort by the user. If a player realizes during initial play that the height of the table is not optimal for his height, the player must interrupt the game, leave his playing position, and crawl dangerously underneath the heavy tabletop to actuate the ratcheting mechanism and lift the heavy top against gravity into a position that he cannot see until he returns to his playing position at tableside. It can be appreciated that it might take several attempts for the player to find a position that is optimal. It would be impractical to expect players to use this arrangement to modify the table's height for only a single or a few games of play.
It is therefore desirable and an object of the present invention to provide a game table adapted to allow players an alternative mechanism to adjust the tabletop to a height that is optimized to the players' heights.
Due to the size and weight of tabletops in general, it is an additional object to provide such a game table that allows such adjustment quickly and effortlessly.
It is a further object to provide such a table in which the height adjustment mechanism is so quick and effortless to operate that players may conveniently optimize the tabletop's height for even a single game of play.
It is still a further object to provide such a table that allows a single player to adjust the table height from a position that approximates his playing position so that he can instantly evaluate the new height without trial and error.
Further, it is an additional object to provide such a table in which the height adjustment mechanism maintains the levelness of the tabletop.
The above and other objects are addressed by the following embodiments of the present invention.